Teach them to fish (or farm)

Teach them to fish (or farm)

Chicago Sun-Times: It’s a noble idea to support products that are made with minimal harm to the environment, knowing that the workers who picked the coffee beans or the cotton were paid a fair and living wage. More than 200 European cities, including London, and a few in the United States support the fair-trade movement. This includes passing resolutions, local governments purchasing fair-trade products and promoting the growth of fair-trade businesses.

But fair trade should also be about the United States practicing fair-trade policies. The bulk of the government’s agricultural subsidies are given for five major crops in the United States — corn, rice, soybeans, wheat and cotton. The subsidies are allotted on a per-acreage basis that primarily benefits large agribusiness and result in overproduction. The surplus is dumped at cut-rate prices on the world market.

The harm done to farmers in the developing world is staggering.

The United States already gives Africa billions of dollars in the form of food and medical aid, but adopting strong fair-trade policies would help grow Africa’s local economies. It’s the old maxim: Give a person a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he never goes hungry again.

Unfortunately, Congress missed a chance to move toward more reasonable fair trade policies earlier this year when it passed a Farm Bill that included the usual market-distorting agricultural subsidies.